Integrated digital-analog archiving systems and methods for document preservation

ABSTRACT

An integrated digital-analog archiving system can automatically initiate a migration process to move electronic documents to a media library. For each electronic document, the system may retrieve the electronic document from a digital data storage medium, extract metadata from the electronic document, determine size, orientation, and format of the electronic document, generate indicators for indicating the start and end of the electronic document to be stored on an analog data storage medium, generate an analog document identifier for identifying the electronic document on the analog data storage medium, generate a scaled image of the electronic document based on the size, orientation, and format of the electronic document, generate a text string based at least in part on the extracted metadata, and render the indicators, the analog document identifier, the scaled image of the electronic document, and the text string on the analog data storage medium.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation of, and claims a benefit of priorityunder 35 U.S.C. § 120 from, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/353,672,filed Jun. 21, 2021, entitled “INTEGRATED DIGITAL-ANALOG ARCHIVINGSYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DOCUMENT PRESERVATION,” which is a continuationof, and claims a benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 from, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/708,103, filed Dec. 9, 2019, now U.S.Pat. No. 11,074,215, entitled “INTEGRATED DIGITAL-ANALOG ARCHIVINGSYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DOCUMENT PRESERVATION,” which is a continuationof, and claims a benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 from, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/201,903, filed Jul. 5, 2016, now U.S.Pat. No. 10,515,050, entitled “INTEGRATED DIGITAL-ANALOG ARCHIVINGSYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DOCUMENT PRESERVATION,” which claims a benefitof priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) from U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 62/190,911, filed Jul. 10, 2015, entitled “INTEGRATED DIGITAL-ANALOGARCHIVING SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DOCUMENT PRESERVATION,” all of whichare hereby fully incorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates generally to document management. Moreparticularly, embodiments disclosed herein relate to integrateddigital-analog archiving systems, methods, and computer program productsfor long-term content archiving and preservation, useful for preservingelectronic documents on analog media, such as microfilms.

BACKGROUND OF THE RELATED ART

There are many types of archives. Some may exist for historicalpurposes. For example, over the course of an individual ororganization's lifetime, documents may be kept to show a historical viewof that person or organization. Some may be put in place by corporationsor enterprises alike for compliance reasons. For example, in the UnitedStates, an employer is required to preserve for at least three yearspayroll records, collective bargaining agreements, sales and purchaserecords, etc.; the Internal Revenue Service requires all records ofemployment taxes be kept for at least four years; and the HealthInsurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires a6-year retention period for protected health information (PHI) such aspatients' medical records and other personal health information. Certaintypes of information, e.g., DNA work product, may be required to bepreserved for even longer lengths of time, e.g., 99 years or more.

Whatever the reason is for preserving such documents, they aretraditionally assessed, collected, organized, and preserved byinformation professionals called archivists. The traditional documentpreservation process may entail reducing documents deemed worthy oflong-term preservation and printing them onto microforms. Microforms canbe films or paper that contain microreproductions (e.g., usingmicrophotography or any suitable standard reproduction techniques knownto those skilled in the art) of documents. Microform images are commonlyreduced to about one twenty-fifth of the original document size. Forspecial purposes, greater optical reductions may be used.

Microforms can have different physical formats. For instance, microformimages can be printed on microfilm (mounted on reels) or microfiche(flat sheets). The term “film” generally refers to a thin translucentstrip or sheet of cellulose coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, usedin a camera to take still pictures or photographs. The term “microfilm”generally refers to a film suitable for bearing a miniature photographiccopy or a miniaturized reproduction of printed or other graphic matter,usually of a document, newspaper, or book pages, etc., made for alibrary, archive, or the like. The term “microfiche” generally refers toa flat sheet of microfilm in a form suitable for filing printed orgraphic matter, typically measuring 4 by 6 inches, and containingmicroreproductions, in a grid pattern. These archival media can becataloged and stored in archival facilities. Archivists may maintaincontrol over and provide access to the archival media.

A document that has been through this traditional document preservation(analog archiving) process has a physical representation (e.g., on apiece of film) that has a measurable physical quality (e.g., the pieceof film is 4 by 6 inches). The digital document preservation (digitalarchiving) process commonly used in today's electronic environments isentirely different from the analog archiving process described above.

In practice, a digital archiving process can be viewed as a recordsmanagement process that ensures the protection, maintenance, andaccessibility of certain documents and that begins from the moment adocument is created and ends with the document being destroyed orpreserved. To this end, a records management system is usuallyresponsible for maintaining information on the creation and managementof electronic archives in accordance with applicable regulations,policies, rules, and/or laws. Such a records management system can be anessential part of a content management system, because certain managedcontent may need to be preserved for compliance reasons, as discussedabove.

A digital archiving system such as a records management system describedabove may have many components, including software tools for creatingand classifying records, software tools for managing security andconfidentiality policies applicable to the records, and long-termstorage media for storing the records electronically. However, whencompared with the long-term storage media used in an analog archivingsystem (e.g., microfilms), the long-term storage media used in a digitalarchiving system (e.g., optical discs, hard drives, tapes, etc.,collectively referred to as digital data storage media) have asignificantly shorter lifespan. For example, with appropriate storageconditions, preservation standard microfilms have a life expectancy of500 years. By contrast, digital data storage media generally have apractical life expectancy between 2 to 5 years and published lifeexpectancies of 10, 25, and up to 30 years. As such, relative to ananalog archiving system, a digital archiving system may need to move ahuge amount of data very frequently.

Another issue relates to the cost of keeping digital data storage mediaup to date. Each time when an old digital archiving system becomes outof date (e.g., system obsolete) and/or when an old digital data storagemedium expires (e.g., software obsolete, format obsolete, or end oflife), a massive amount of electronic documents may need to be migratedto a new digital archiving system or a new digital data storage medium.Compared to analog data storage media, digital data storage media can bevery expensive and hence the cost of preserving documents on digitaldata storage media can be very high relative to the cost of preservingdocuments on analog data storage media.

Yet another issue relates to the need to verify and ensure that eachdocument (in the massive amount of documents that need to be migrated)has not been modified during migration. Skilled artisans appreciate thatmigration of a document from one electronic data storage device toanother may unavoidably involve data conversion of some sort.Furthermore, certain information such as timestamp may be automaticallyadded to the document. Unlike analog archiving systems, such alterationsare usually not visible to and/or not easily discoverable by humanusers.

An analog archiving system stores an actual image of the original data,so it is easy to view and requires no software to decode the data storedthereon. The archived information cannot be modified and can be read andinstantly comprehensible to those who are literate in the language ofthe archived information. The only equipment needed is a reader machinewith a magnifying glass. This eliminates the issue of obsolescencediscussed above.

Analog archiving systems, however, are not without drawbacks. Forexample, reader machines used to view microforms are often difficult touse, requiring users to carefully wind and rewind until they havearrived at the point where the data they are looking for is stored.There is not an automated way to search and retrieve microforms.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

An object of this disclosure is to provide an integrated digital-analogarchiving solution that takes advantages of analog archiving systems aswell as digital archiving systems, making it cheaper to store documentsfor a long time while providing the abilities to verify and search thestored documents.

This and other objects can be achieved through embodiments of systems,methods and computer program products disclosed herein. For example, insome embodiments, a method may comprise an integrated digital-analogarchiving system initiating a migration process to move a large volumeof electronic documents from at least one digital (non-transitory) datastorage medium to analog data storage media such as microforms or,particularly, microfilms.

In some embodiments, the migration process may be performed by arendering module of the integrated digital-analog archiving system. Therender module may, for each document to be migrated, retrieve thedocument from a digital data storage medium, extract metadata, determinesize, orientation, and format of the document, generate a firstindicator for indicating the start of the document on a microfilm,generate a document identifier for identifying the document on themicrofilm, generate a scaled (e.g., reduced) image of the document forthe microfilm based on the size, orientation, and format of thedocument, generate technical text based on the metadata extracted fromthe document, generate a second indicator for indicating the end of thedocument on the microfilm, and render (e.g., translate or convert themfor printing) the indicators, the document identifier, the scaled imageof the document, and the technical information on the microfilm.

In some embodiments, the integrated digital-analog archiving system mayfurther include a retrieve module that is coupled to a media librarywhere the microfilm is stored. The integrated digital-analog archivingsystem may maintain the identifier of the microfilm, the metadataextracted from the document, and positional information about thedocument. In some embodiments, responsive to a request to view thedocument, the retrieve module can locate the correct microfilm on whichthe document is stored, find the position number associated with thedocument, capture an image (e.g., utilizing a camera or scanner) of themicrofilm at the position number, process the image, and determinewhether the image correctly reflects the requested document. If theimage is not correct, the retrieve module can reposition the microfilmby, for instance, moving the microfilm forward or backward, captureanother image of the microfilm, and again process the image anddetermine whether the image correctly reflects the requested document.This process can be repeated until the correct image is found. Then, theretrieve module can take a final image which includes the document andthe technical information (which is located proximate the document onthe microfilm). The retrieve module processes the final image togenerate an electronic file in the appropriate digital format andprocesses the technical information located proximate the document onthe microfilm to generate metadata for the electronic file, and returnthe electronic file with the metadata to service the request.

One embodiment comprises a system comprising a processor and anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores computerinstructions translatable by the processor to perform a methodsubstantially as described herein. Another embodiment comprises acomputer program product having a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium that stores computer instructions translatable by aprocessor to perform a method substantially as described herein.

Numerous other embodiments are also possible.

These, and other, aspects of the disclosure will be better appreciatedand understood when considered in conjunction with the followingdescription and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood,however, that the following description, while indicating variousembodiments of the disclosure and numerous specific details thereof, isgiven by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many substitutions,modifications, additions and/or rearrangements may be made within thescope of the disclosure without departing from the spirit thereof, andthe disclosure includes all such substitutions, modifications, additionsand/or rearrangements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification areincluded to depict certain aspects of the invention. A clearerimpression of the invention, and of the components and operation ofsystems provided with the invention, will become more readily apparentby referring to the exemplary, and therefore non-limiting, embodimentsillustrated in the drawings, wherein identical reference numeralsdesignate the same components. Note that the features illustrated in thedrawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

FIG. 1 depicts a diagrammatic representation of an example of anintegrated digital-analog archiving system according to someembodiments.

FIG. 2A is a flow chart illustrating an example of a rendering methodfor integrated digital-analog archiving according to some embodiments.

FIG. 2B is a flow chart illustrating an example of a retrieval methodfor integrated digital-analog archiving according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3A depicts a diagrammatic representation of an example of an analogrendition format provided by an integrated digital-analog archivingsystem according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3B depicts a diagrammatic representation of an example of a digitaldocument that has been transformed into an analog rendition format andstored on an analog data storage medium according to some embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts a diagrammatic representation of one example embodimentof a data processing system that can be used to implement embodimentsdisclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention and the various features and advantageous details thereofare explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodimentsthat are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in thefollowing description. Descriptions of well-known starting materials,processing techniques, components and equipment are omitted so as not tounnecessarily obscure the invention in detail. It should be understood,however, that the detailed description and the specific examples, whileindicating some embodiments of the invention, are given by way ofillustration only and not by way of limitation. Various substitutions,modifications, additions and/or rearrangements within the spirit and/orscope of the underlying inventive concept will become apparent to thoseskilled in the art from this disclosure.

Today, data are commonly stored on digital data storage media. Examplesof digital data storage media may include, but are not limited to,erasable non-volatile memory (e.g., erasable at the block-level such asflash memory, erasable at the bye-level such as electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM), Solid-State Disk or Drive (SSD),etc.), hard disks, optically readable storage media such as DigitalVersatile Discs (DVDs), Blue-ray Disks (BDs), etc.), and magnetic tapedata storage media.

Digital data storage media are great for fast access. However, they canbe very expensive when used to archive and store data that are notfrequently or almost never accessed. As discussed above, an issue fordata which are stored for compliance reasons is that the digital datastorage system must be replaced relatively frequently, typically after 5years. That is, all the documents stored in the digital data storagesystem must be migrated to another digital data storage system at leastevery 5 years. During the migration, it is essential to keep theinformation on when the document was archived (e.g., a digitaltimestamp) and to verify that the document is not modified during thismigration process. This is a very costly and time-consuming process.

In an ideal archiving solution, a document would be archived into anon-transitory data storage where the document could be kept for a verylong time. With such a long-term solution, migration is only needed asdictated by the limitations of the hardware used. The storage (anddocument format) of this ideal archiving solution would fulfill thefollowing requirements:

-   -   Long term (e.g., 100 years or more) readable    -   Not modifiable    -   Compliant (verify when the document was archived and that it is        unmodified)    -   Easy/fast accessible

Unfortunately, such an ideal archiving solution does not exist today.This is because it is impossible to fulfill all these requirements withthe currently available data storage technologies which mainly focus onbeing compliant and increasing access speed. For data which are usedduring the normal business processes, current data storage technologiesare sufficient. However, for archival data which are only rarely ornever accessed, a new archiving solution that focuses on long-termreadability and compliant is needed.

Compared to digital archives, analog archives (e.g., paper, microformssuch as microfilms, etc.) have more or less the exact inverse ofchallenges. Analog archives can store documents for a very long time andare secure and readily accessible with basic tools such as a readermachine described above. Thus, on the one hand, analog archives face thefollowing challenges:

-   -   Access speed (document must be physically retrieved and provided        to the user)    -   Costs related to physically housing all the documents    -   Costs related to protecting archived documents against physical        damages

On the other hand, digital archives face the following challenges:

-   -   With the reduced feature set, most viewers show documents        slightly different. Also, a digitally archived document may be        shown differently after a long period of time. This may be true        even if it can be proved that the digitally archived document        has not been modified, the content displayed to the user might        be different because it is rendered in a different way.    -   Digitally archived documents are stored in a binary format which        is stored on some kind of electronic storage. As history has        shown, the storage types/formats appear and disappear quite        frequently. Furthermore, it is very likely that a digital data        storage device could not be read after 30 years, because the        technology very likely would have disappeared by then. Thus,        although some digital data storage media types are certified for        up to 100 years, it is very unlikely that a device that could        read the digital media will still be available and/or        operational after such a long period of time.

These and other issues known to those skilled in the art makes itimpossible to store digital data for a long period of time withouthaving to continuously migrate and verify the data. Furthermore, theaforementioned rendering issue makes data verification a very complexproblem—no existing automated process can detect data modifications andhumans are not very good at identifying small modifications. However,the ability to detect and identify modifications, even the smallestmodifications, in archived documents can be crucially important in somecases (e.g., to authenticate a historically important document such as acontract, a treaty, a certificate, a letter, etc.).

Embodiments disclosed herein provide an integrated digital-analogarchiving solution that combines analog documents with digital archives,taking advantages from both the digital world and the analog world ofarchiving. As discussed above, classical (analog) archives have proventhat storing documents on analog media such as microfilms can be anexcellent solution for storing documents for a very long time (e.g.,proven long-term data storage for at least 500 years without migration)and accessing it without special hardware. To leverage the longevity ofanalog data storage media, documents in digital archives are processedand stored on analog data storage media such as microfilms. As explainedfurther below, embodiments are operable to process a digital document,generate an analog document on an analog medium (i.e., an analogrendition of the digital document), and mark the analog document on theanalog medium so that it is automatically retrievable. When requested,embodiments can automatically retrieve the analog document and processit back to a digital form such that it is visible in a digital archive.

Currently, digital documents are only stored in computer-readableformats, as those skilled in the art can appreciate. For example, ahuman cannot pick up a flash memory drive and read a document stored onthe flash memory drive without using a computer or the like to read,interpret, and render the stored document on a screen or display device.However, documents stored on the analog data storage media are in ahuman-readable format and can be viewed in many ways, with or without acomputer.

For the purpose of illustration, FIG. 1 depicts a diagrammaticrepresentation of an example of an integrated digital-analog archivingsystem according to some embodiments. In this example, integrateddigital-analog archiving system 100 comprises archive server 110 andmetadata database 120 and digital data storage 130 communicativelyconnected to archive server 110.

These components may be embodied on one or more server machines andconfigured to perform functions typical of digital archives. Forexample, archive server 110 may comprise software and hardware necessaryto create and/or manage digital data such as electronic records anddocuments for archival purposes. Metadata about such digital data may bestored in metadata database 120 which, in some embodiments, mayimplement a relational database management system (RDBMS).

The digital data may be stored in digital data storage 130. Digital datastorage 130 may be communicatively connected to archive server 110 inmany ways, including over a private network and/or a public network, solong as archive server 110 can access digital data storage 130 toretrieve digital documents for processing. Digital data storage 130 can,but does not need to, physically reside at the same location as archiveserver 110. In some embodiments, digital data storage 130 can comprisean online or cloud storage server that is external to or remote fromintegrated digital-analog archiving system 100. In some embodiments,digital data storage 130 can comprise a data source that is local toarchive server 110 of integrated digital-analog archiving system 100.

Unlike conventional digital archives, integrated digital-analogarchiving system 100 further includes media library 160 having aplurality of analog data storage media 170 a . . . 170 n. Examples of ananalog data storage medium may include, but are not limited to, a film,microfilm, microfiche, or paper. Other types of analog data storagemedia suitable for long-term content archiving and preservation may alsobe included.

As illustrated in FIG. 1 , media library 160 may be communicativelyconnected to rendering module 140 and retrieve module 150. In someembodiments, rendering module 140 and retrieve module 150 may beimplemented as special functions (e.g., a digital-to-analog renderingfunction and an analog-to-digital retrieval function) of archive server110. For example, archive server 110 may initiate a migration process tomove documents from digital data storage 130 to media library 160 and,in doing so, process the documents into analog forms and store them onanalog media. In response to a request from a client device to view anarchived document, archive server 110 may operate to locate an analogrendition archived on an analog medium and convert the analog renditionback to an electronic form for display on the client device.

In some embodiments, rendering module 140 and retrieve module 150 may beimplemented as self-contained units that can be called upon by archiveserver 110 when needed. For example, archive server 110 may operate tocall rendering module 140 to perform a digital-to-analog renderingfunction and may operate to call retrieve module 150 to perform ananalog-to-digital retrieval function. The functionality of renderingmodule 140 and retrieve module 150 will be explained further below withreference to FIGS. 2A and 2B.

In some embodiments, rendering module 140 is particularly programmed tocreate an analog rendition of a digital document. In this disclosure, ananalog rendition of a digital document refers to a physicalrepresentation of the digital document in a human-readable format. Thisphysical representation can have an observable and/or measurablephysical quality relative to the underlying analog data storage mediumwhich stores the analog rendition. For example, an original documentsize of a page in a document is 8.5″×11″ (or 215.9 mm×279.4 mm). Aphysical representation of the page can be 1/25 of the original documentsize so as to fit the page on a roll of film that has a width of 16 mm.Different optical reductions may be utilized for different originaldocument sizes and/or purposes. Such a physical representation can berendered, printed, or otherwise outputted on an analog data storagemedium utilizing standard technologies (e.g., via a microfilm printerknown to those skilled in the art).

In some embodiments, retrieve module 150 may be locally coupled to medialibrary 160 and can communicate with a media robot of media library 160to load and read analog data storage media 170 a . . . 170 n. Medialibrary 160 may have a collection of one or more types of analog datastorage media such as photographic films/paper, microfilms, microfiche,and/or other archiving media. Skilled artisans appreciate that medialibrary 160 may include other types of physical, non-transitoryarchiving media, such as tape, glass discs, etc.

Method 200 shown in FIG. 2A illustrates an example of a rendering methodfor integrated digital-analog archiving according to some embodiments.Method 200 may be carried out by integrated digital-analog archivingsystem 100 shown in FIG. 1 . For example, archive server 110 mayinitiate a migration process to move a set of electronic documents fromdigital data storage 130 to media library 160 (step 201). In someembodiments, the migration process may be initiated automatically byarchive server 110 responsive to a trigger or on-demand such as per anadministrative instruction from an authorized user.

Examples of triggers that may automatically initiate a migration processmay include a predetermined condition, a predetermined criterion, arule, a policy, a predetermined time interval, a scheduled time, or anyarchiving configuration setting that has been particularly programmedinto integrated digital-analog archiving system 100. For example, apolicy may dictate that all documents in a particular format should bepreserved; a content management system may specify that all documents ina particular volume managed by the content management system should bepreserved; a new compliance regulation requires that all patentdocuments be preserved for 99 years; etc. Archiving rules/configurationsettings reflecting or otherwise implementing such requirements may bestored in data store 180 accessible by archive server 110. Those skilledin the art appreciate that such a migration process may involve a hugeamount of data (e.g., hundreds of gigabytes of data, if not more).

Data migration generally refers the process of transferring data betweenstorage types, formats, or computer systems. Data migration is usuallyperformed programmatically to achieve an automated migration, freeing uphuman resources from tedious tasks. A programmatic data migrationprocess may include data extraction and data loading. In thisdisclosure, data extraction refers to an operation in which data is readfrom a digital data storage and data loading refers to another operationin which data is written onto an analog medium.

In performing the data extraction, rendering module 140 may, for eachdocument to be migrated, read the document from a digital data storagemedium (step 205) and extract metadata from the document (step 210). Thespecific metadata extracted by rendering module 140 may depend ondocument type. As a non-limiting example, a document type for a documenttypically stored in digital data storage 130 may have the followingproperties:

-   -   Change Token    -   Checkin Comment    -   File Name    -   Stream Id    -   Content Length    -   Mime Type    -   Created By    -   Creation Date    -   Description    -   Immutable    -   Is Latest Major Version    -   Is Latest Version    -   Is Major Version    -   Private Working Copy    -   Checked Out    -   Modification Date    -   Modified By    -   Name    -   Object Id    -   Type-Id    -   Secondary Type Ids    -   Version Label    -   Checked Out By    -   Checked Out Id    -   Version Series Id    -   Archive Server Document Checksum    -   Archive Server Document Component Name    -   Datasource Id    -   Archive Server Document Identifier    -   Tags

Other document properties may also be possible. In some cases, theseproperties are referred to as keys and together with their values arereferred to as key-value pairs (e.g., “Created By: John Doe”; “CreationDate: 06182015”; etc.). Rendering module 140 may be configured toextract particular key-value pairs and store/update same in metadatadatabase 120. The extracted key-value pairs can be used to generate atext string of metadata, as explained below. Example keys may include,but are not limited to, document properties, related dates, relatedpeople, related documents, etc. Examples of document properties mayinclude document size, pages, words, total editing time, title, tags,comments, template, category, subject, hyperlink base, company, etc.Examples of related dates may include the last modified date, thecreation date, the last printed date, etc. Examples of related peoplemay include a manager, an author, a user who last modified the document,etc. Examples of related documents may include files stored in the samefolder or directory with the document, etc. An example text string isshown in FIG. 3B.

In performing the data loading, rendering module 140 may generate ananalog rendition of the document read from the digital data storagemedium (step 215). In some embodiments, this may entail rendering module140 determining (which, in one embodiment, can be an optional step) thesize, orientation, and format of the document, generating a firstindicator (e.g., a start marker, or any suitable visual or optical signor pattern that is visible to, or that can be read by, humans and/ormachines such as a camera, a reader, or a scanner) for indicating thestart of the document on a microfilm, generating an analog documentidentifier (e.g., a bar code, in one embodiment) for identifying thedocument on the microfilm, generating a scaled (e.g., reduced) image ofthe document for the microfilm based on the size, orientation, andformat of the document, generating technical information/metadata (e.g.,an ASCII text string) based on the key-value pairs extracted from thedocument, and generating a second indicator (e.g., an end marker) forindicating the end of the document on the microfilm.

The scaled image can be generated using standard image processingtechniques known to those skilled in the art. The analog rendition(which, in on embodiment, includes the first indicator, the analogdocument identifier, the scaled image of the document, the text string,and the second indicator) is then outputted to a device (e.g., to amicrofilm printer, not shown) communicatively connected to integrateddigital-analog archiving system 100 (step 220). The device may thenprint the analog rendition on an analog medium suitable for long-termstorage.

The process described above (e.g., steps 205-220) can be repeated untilall documents in the set of electronic documents are migrated to medialibrary 160 or until rendering module 140 is instructed to end,terminate, or stop the process.

As discussed above, in some cases (e.g., for compliance reasons),digital documents must be rendered the same as they would be shown to auser and as printed on analog media such as microfilms. Thus, in someembodiments, rendering module 140 is certified so that it is proven thatan analog rendition of a digital document generated by rendering module140 is identical to the digital document which would be shown to a user.

Accordingly, in some embodiments, rendering module 140 (or a separatefunction of archive server 110) may, prior to outputting the analogrendition for storage on the analog medium, perform data verification toensure that the digital data was accurately transformed into the analogform. Digital timestamps are an essential part to verify when a documentwas archived. To keep this information with the document, in someembodiments, rendering module 140 may generate or obtain a digitaltimestamp and add an analog version of the digital timestamp to the textstring so as to record a time when the scaled image of the electronicdocument is stored on the analog data storage medium. In thisdisclosure, a digital timestamp refers to a sequence of characters orencoded information identifying when a document is archived, usuallyincluding the date and time of day as recorded by a computer.

Thus, in some embodiments, in addition to metadata extracted from theelectronic document, an analog version of a digital timestamp is addedas part of the text string located proximate to the analog rendition ofthe document on the analog medium. This information serves as proof ofauthenticity of the document at the particular point in time when thedocument was printed on the analog medium. As it is not possible tomodify/alter the document and the information about the document,including the timestamp, printed on the microfilm, the document that isnow stored on the analog medium can be considered to be an unmodified,true and trustworthy representation of the original digital document atthe time it was archived.

Accordingly, embodiments disclosed herein can address the need to verifyand ensure that each document (in the massive amount of documents thatneed to be migrated) has not been modified during migration. Sinceinformation about the document (but not the document itself) is storedin the metadata database and also printed on the analog medium, theverification process can be as straightforward as comparing the metadataextracted from an analog rendition and the metadata stored in themetadata database. For example, if a user searches the archive server onJune 27, 2046 for a document that was last modified by John Doe on June27, 2016, these criteria would be used by the archive server to searchthe metadata database and also search the analog library. The archiveserver would then compare the metadata (e.g., Last Modified By, LastModified Date, etc.) and verify whether they match. Note that sucharchive verification may be part of an archive compliance processimplemented in compliance with a regulation and/or policy governing thedocument(s) of interest. For example, an archive compliance process mayinclude adding a timestamp to an analog rendition of a document atmigration time and the archive verification may include verifying thetimestamp on the analog rendition at retrieval time.

Method 250 shown in FIG. 2B illustrates an example of a retrieval methodfor integrated digital-analog archiving according to some embodiments.Method 250 may be carried out by integrated digital-analog archivingsystem 100 shown in FIG. 1 . For example, retrieve module 150 ofintegrated digital-analog archiving system 100 may, responsive to arequest from a client device communicatively connected thereto to searchand/or review an archived document, operate to locate an analog datastorage medium in media library 160 (step 255). This may be done bysearching metadata database 120 to determine analog medium 170 a, onwhich an analog rendition of the archived document may be stored. Inaddition to location information, metadata database 120 may storepositional information indicating a position of the archived document(e.g., the fourth document) relative to analog medium 170 a. Metadatadatabase 120 may further store an identifier of analog medium 170 a, anidentifier of the archived document, and metadata about the document.The identifier of the archived document is the same as the documentidentifier printed with the archived document on analog medium 170 a.

Utilizing start markers on analog medium 170 a, retrieve module 150 mayoperate to position (e.g., advance, forward, orient, etc.) analog medium170 a on a viewer or reader to a position/orientation indicated by thepositional information retrieved from metadata database 120 for thearchived document of interest and capture (e.g., using a camera,scanner, a reader, etc.) an image of analog medium 170 a for furtherprocessing (step 260). This image can have a particular analog renditionformat that enables automatic generation of a digital representation ofthe archived document by retrieve module 150.

FIG. 3A depicts a diagrammatic representation of an example of analogrendition format 300 provided by an integrated digital-analog archivingsystem according to some embodiments. As illustrated in FIG. 3A, analogrendition format 300 represents a new analog rendition format that maybe generated by a rendering module (e.g., rendering module 140 describedabove with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 ). This new analog renditionformat makes it possible for a special retrieve module (e.g., retrievemodule 150 of FIG. 1 ) to retrieve analog documents stored on analogdata storage media (e.g., analog media 170 a . . . 170 n of medialibrary 160 shown in FIG. 1 ) in an automated fashion and yet it remainsin a human-readable form and can be read by human users without computerhardware.

As illustrated in FIG. 3A and referring to FIG. 1 , analog renditionformat 300 may include a first indicator (e.g., start marker 331), ananalog document identifier (e.g., document ID 333), a scaled (e.g.,reduced) image of a digital document (e.g., document 320), a text string(e.g., metadata 335), and a second indicator (e.g., end marker 337). Inthis example, analog rendition format 300 is particularly suited forstoring analog renditions on analog medium 310.

FIG. 3B depicts a diagrammatic representation of an example of a digitaldocument that has been transformed into analog rendition 301 in analogrendition format 300 and stored on analog data storage medium 350according to some embodiments. In this example, analog rendition 301 mayinclude a first indicator (e.g., start marker 351), an analog documentidentifier (e.g., bar code 353), three images (e.g., images 302 a, 302b, 302 c), a text string (e.g., metadata 355), and a second indicator(e.g., end marker 357).

Here, the first and second indicators are represented as straight lineshaving different patterns. Those skilled in the art appreciate thatother types of indicators and/or patterns may also be used.

In the example of FIG. 3B, the analog document identifier is stored onanalog medium 350 as a bar code (e.g., bar code 353). In someembodiments, the analog document identifier is stored both in a barcodeformat and human-readable format (e.g., text). In some embodiments,archive server 110 may store an electronic version of the documentidentifier in metadata database 120 and may maintain an identifier ofthe microfilm, metadata extracted from each document, and positionalinformation about each document, for instance, in metadata database 120.The document identifier, which is stored in metadata database 120 andwhich is also printed on an analog medium along with the analogrendition of the document, can be used to obtain the archived documentfrom media library 160.

As discussed above, there are many different types of analog datastorage media including flat films, microfilms, aperture cards,microfiches, high-density microfiches, high-density microfilms, etc.Depending upon the type of analog data storage media used in medialibrary 160, different positional information and/or different reductiontechniques may be utilized. In the example of FIG. 3B, three pages of adigital document are significantly reduced (e.g., scaled to about 1/25of their original size) to produce images that fit within a width ofanalog data storage medium 350.

As a non-limiting example, the standard lengths for roll film are 100ft., 130 ft., and 215 ft. for 16 mm rolls. A 16 mm microfilm may carry2,400 images of originally letter-sized pages (8.5″×11″ or 215.9mm×279.4 mm) as a single stream of micro images along the film set sothat lines of text in each image are parallel to the sides of themicrofilm. Accordingly, a position number #111 may indicate that thedocument begins at the 111^(th) position (e.g., the 111^(th) image ofthe 2,400 images) on the microfilm. As describe above, as an optionalfeature, the document may be sized and oriented appropriately byrendering module 140 so as to fit the document on the microfilm.

In some embodiments, a microfilm is printed sequentially with analogrenditions of documents and associated metadata in human-readable form(e.g., images and texts). For example, following the above examplekey-value pairs such as “Created By: John Doe” and “Creation Date:06182015”; etc., metadata 355 may comprise a text string of “CREATED BYJOHN DOE, CREATION DATE 06/18/2015, . . .” located proximate (e.g.,before or after) the first or last image (e.g., before image 302 a orafter 302 c, in the example of FIG. 3B). Those skilled in the artappreciate that metadata 355 may be located anywhere between startmarker 351 and end marker 357 of analog rendition 301 and thus is notlimited to the example shown in FIG. 3B. Furthermore, metadata 355associated with the document may be located in multiple places on analogmedium 350 between start marker 351 and end marker 357 of analogrendition 301. For example, a timestamp may be located on analog medium350 separate from the metadata originally extracted from the electronicdocument during the data extraction operation.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2B, in some embodiments, retrieve module150 is particularly configured for retrieving analog documents archivedin the new analog rendition format described above. As discussed above,in some embodiments, responsive to a request received at archive server110 to view an archived document, retrieve module 150 can locate ananalog data storage medium in the media library, locate an analogrendition on the analog data storage medium, capture an image of theanalog rendition, process the image of the analog rendition, anddetermine whether the image correctly reflects a requested document(steps 255-260). If the image does not correctly reflect the requesteddocument, retrieve module 150 may reposition the analog data storagemedium and repeating the capturing, the processing, and the determininguntil a correct image that reflects the requested document is found, oruntil this process is terminated, for instance, due to an errorcondition or an administrative instruction. If the image correctlyreflects the requested document, retrieve module 150 may capture orprocess a final image of the analog rendition.

Utilizing the analog rendition format described above, retrieve module150 may obtain an analog document and analog metadata located proximatethe analog document on the analog data storage medium and generate adigital representation (e.g., an electronic file) from the analogdocument along with electronic metadata from the analog metadata (step265). Retrieve module 150 may add the electronic metadata to theelectronic file (step 270) and return the electronic file so thatarchive server 110 can service the request and/or store the electronicfile (step 275).

More specifically, in some embodiments, to locate the correct analogmedium in media library 160 on which a requested document is stored,retrieve module 150 may utilize the microfilm identifier associated withthe document identifier in metadata database 120 maintained by archiveserver 110. In some embodiments, retrieve module 150 may then utilizethe position number to locate the document on the analog medium. Thismay entail retrieve module 150 detecting the start marker of therequested document indicated by the position number. Once at theposition indicated by the position number, retrieve module 150 mayoperate a camera, a scanner, or a reader to capture an image of themicrofilm at the position indicated by the position number. Retrievemodule 150 may process the captured image (e.g., an image file in a rawdata format) and determine whether the image correctly reflects therequested document.

If the image thus processed by retrieve module 150 does not correspondto the requested document (e.g., the image shows a single page documentas opposed to a three-pages document, a portion of the image is notreadable by retrieve module 150, etc.), retrieve module 150 can move themicrofilm sequentially forward or backward, capture another image of themicrofilm, and again interpret and determine whether the image correctlyreflects the requested document. In some embodiments, retrieve module150 may include hardware components such as a microfilm reader, a lightsource, and a camera. Features of a microfilm reader may include a lenscapable of magnifying the image on a film to at least the size of theoriginal document and a film loader for holding the film underexamination in position under the lens as illuminated by the lightsource. As an example, the lens of the microfilm reader may beintegrated with a camera. Moving the microfilm can be accomplished byretrieve module 150 moving a microfilm reader or a platform on which themicrofilm is loaded.

The process described above can be repeated until a correct image isfound and a final image is captured. As described above, according tothe new analog rendition format, such a final image would include thedocument and the technical information (in a text string) associatedtherewith. As a non-limiting example, the text string may sequentiallyfollow or otherwise located proximate to the analog image of therequested document on the microfilm, as illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B.Retrieve module 150 can then convert the analog image back to anelectronic file in an appropriate digital format (i.e., a digitalmachine-readable rendition which, in one embodiment, can be in theTagged Image File Format (TIFF) format). Metadata associated with therequested document, which may include the digital timestamp from theinitial ingestion (e.g., during the migration process), may be convertedfrom the text string stored on the microfilm and/or retrieved frommetadata database 120. Retrieve module 150 may then return theelectronic file, with the associated metadata already added, to archiveserver 110 which, in turn, may communicate the electronic file to aclient device for display on the client device. The metadata may or maynot be shown on the client device.

An important feature of embodiments disclosed herein is that a documentstored on an analog medium could still be viewed without the retrievemodule described above. Without the retrieve module, a document storedon an analog medium could not be retrieved for viewing in an automatedretrieval process. However, with the currently available technology toview microfilms, the documents could still be retrieved and viewed usinga conventional microfilm reader.

Embodiments disclosed herein can provide many advantages. For example,the integrated digital-analog archiving system disclosed herein cansupport microfilms as an additional storage tier, allowing management ofdigital and analog content in a single system (e.g., a single entrypoint to review archived documents whether they are in digital or analogform). Furthermore, the integration of analog long-term human-readablemedia provides additional advantages such as making it impossible tomodify the archived documents, allowing the archived documents to bepreserved fora long, extended period of time (e.g., 100-500 years),possibly requiring no media change over the life of the documents, andenabling the archived documents to be stored in a secure physicalenvironment (which is not possible to be hacked via a computer network).The integration of digital archives with analog documents allows theanalog documents to be easily accessible and searchable with standardsearch functionality. Additionally, with the retrieve module describedabove, the retrieval process may be automated, eliminating the need foran archivist to physically retrieve an analog document from an analogarchive.

FIG. 4 depicts a diagrammatic representation of one example embodimentof a data processing system that can be used to implement embodimentsdisclosed herein. As shown in FIG. 4 , data processing system 400 mayinclude one or more central processing units (CPU) or processors 401coupled to one or more user input/output (I/O) devices 402 and memorydevices 403. Examples of I/O devices 402 may include, but are notlimited to, keyboards, displays, monitors, touch screens, printers,electronic pointing devices such as mice, trackballs, styluses, touchpads, or the like. Examples of memory devices 403 may include, but arenot limited to, hard drives (HDs), magnetic disk drives, optical diskdrives, magnetic cassettes, tape drives, flash memory cards, randomaccess memories (RAMs), read-only memories (ROMs), smart cards, etc.Data processing system 400 can be coupled to display 406, informationdevice 407 and various peripheral devices (not shown), such as printers,plotters, speakers, etc. through I/O devices 402. Data processing system400 may also be coupled to external computers or other devices throughnetwork interface 404, wireless transceiver 405, or other means that iscoupled to a network such as a local area network (LAN), wide areanetwork (WAN), or the Internet.

Those skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that the invention canbe implemented or practiced with other computer system configurations,including without limitation multi-processor systems, network devices,mini-computers, mainframe computers, data processors, and the like. Theinvention can be embodied in a computer, or a special purpose computeror data processor that is specifically programmed, configured, orconstructed to perform the functions described in detail herein. Theinvention can also be employed in distributed computing environments,where tasks or modules are performed by remote processing devices, whichare linked through a communications network such as a LAN, WAN, and/orthe Internet. In a distributed computing environment, program modules orsubroutines may be located in both local and remote memory storagedevices. These program modules or subroutines may, for example, bestored or distributed on computer-readable media, including magnetic andoptically readable and removable computer discs, stored as firmware inchips, as well as distributed electronically over the Internet or overother networks (including wireless networks). Example chips may includeElectrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) chips.Embodiments discussed herein can be implemented in suitable instructionsthat may reside on a non-transitory computer readable medium, hardwarecircuitry or the like, or any combination and that may be translatableby one or more server machines. Examples of a non-transitory computerreadable medium are provided below in this disclosure.

ROM, RAM, and HD are computer memories for storing computer-executableinstructions executable by the CPU or capable of being compiled orinterpreted to be executable by the CPU. Suitable computer-executableinstructions may reside on a computer readable medium (e.g., ROM, RAM,and/or HD), hardware circuitry or the like, or any combination thereof.Within this disclosure, the term “computer readable medium” is notlimited to ROM, RAM, and HD and can include any type of data storagemedium that can be read by a processor. Examples of computer-readablestorage media can include, but are not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memories and storage devices such as random accessmemories, read-only memories, hard drives, data cartridges, directaccess storage device arrays, magnetic tapes, floppy diskettes, flashmemory drives, optical data storage devices, compact-disc read-onlymemories, and other appropriate computer memories and data storagedevices. Thus, a computer-readable medium may refer to a data cartridge,a data backup magnetic tape, a floppy diskette, a flash memory drive, anoptical data storage drive, a CD-ROM, ROM, RAM, HD, or the like.

The processes described herein may be implemented in suitablecomputer-executable instructions that may reside on a computer readablemedium (for example, a disk, CD-ROM, a memory, etc.). Alternatively, thecomputer-executable instructions may be stored as software codecomponents on a direct access storage device array, magnetic tape,floppy diskette, optical storage device, or other appropriatecomputer-readable medium or storage device.

Any suitable programming language can be used to implement the routines,methods or programs of embodiments of the invention described herein,including C, C++, Java, JavaScript, HTML, or any other programming orscripting code, etc. Other software/hardware/network architectures maybe used. For example, the functions of the disclosed embodiments may beimplemented on one computer or shared/distributed among two or morecomputers in or across a network. Communications between computersimplementing embodiments can be accomplished using any electronic,optical, radio frequency signals, or other suitable methods and tools ofcommunication in compliance with known network protocols.

Different programming techniques can be employed such as procedural orobject oriented. Any particular routine can execute on a single computerprocessing device or multiple computer processing devices, a singlecomputer processor or multiple computer processors. Data may be storedin a single storage medium or distributed through multiple storagemediums, and may reside in a single database or multiple databases (orother data storage techniques). Although the steps, operations, orcomputations may be presented in a specific order, this order may bechanged in different embodiments. In some embodiments, to the extentmultiple steps are shown as sequential in this specification, somecombination of such steps in alternative embodiments may be performed atthe same time. The sequence of operations described herein can beinterrupted, suspended, or otherwise controlled by another process, suchas an operating system, kernel, etc. The routines can operate in anoperating system environment or as stand-alone routines. Functions,routines, methods, steps and operations described herein can beperformed in hardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof.

Embodiments described herein can be implemented in the form of controllogic in software or hardware or a combination of both. The controllogic may be stored in an information storage medium, such as acomputer-readable medium, as a plurality of instructions adapted todirect an information processing device to perform a set of stepsdisclosed in the various embodiments. Based on the disclosure andteachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate other ways and/or methods to implement the invention.

It is also within the spirit and scope of the invention to implement insoftware programming or code an of the steps, operations, methods,routines or portions thereof described herein, where such softwareprogramming or code can be stored in a computer-readable medium and canbe operated on by a processor to permit a computer to perform any of thesteps, operations, methods, routines or portions thereof describedherein. The invention may be implemented by using software programmingor code in one or more purpose digital computers, by using applicationspecific integrated circuits, programmable logic devices, fieldprogrammable gate arrays, optical, chemical, biological, quantum ornanoengineered systems, components and mechanisms may be used. Ingeneral, the functions of the invention can be achieved in many ways.For example, distributed, or networked systems, components and circuitscan be used. In another example, communication or transfer (or otherwisemoving from one place to another) of data may be wired, wireless, or byany other means.

A “computer-readable medium” may be any medium that can contain, store,communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, system ordevice. The computer readable medium can be, by way of example only butnot by limitation, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, system, device,propagation medium, or computer memory. Such computer-readable mediumshall generally be machine readable and include software programming orcode that can be human-readable (e.g., source code) or machine readable(e.g., object code). Examples of non-transitory computer-readable mediacan include random access memories, read-only memories, hard drives,data cartridges, magnetic tapes, floppy diskettes, flash memory drives,optical data storage devices, compact-disc read-only memories, and otherappropriate computer memories and data storage devices. In anillustrative embodiment, some or all of the software components mayreside on a single server computer or on any combination of separateserver computers. As one skilled in the art can appreciate, a computerprogram product implementing an embodiment disclosed herein may compriseone or more non-transitory computer readable media storing computerinstructions translatable by one or more processors in a computingenvironment.

A “processor” includes any, hardware system, mechanism or component thatprocesses data, signals or other information. A processor can include asystem with a central processing unit, multiple processing units,dedicated circuitry for achieving functionality, or other systems.Processing need not be limited to a geographic location, or havetemporal limitations. For example, a processor can perform its functionsin “real-time,” “offline,” in a “batch mode,” etc. Portions ofprocessing can be performed at different times and at differentlocations, by different (or the same) processing systems.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,”“including,” “has,” “having,” or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process,product, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is notnecessarily limited only those elements but may include other elementsnot expressly listed or inherent to such product, process, article, orapparatus.

Furthermore, the term “or” as used herein is generally intended to mean“and/or” unless otherwise indicated. For example, a condition A or B issatisfied by any one of the following: A is true (or present) and B isfalse (or not present), A is false (or not present) and B is true (orpresent), and both A and B are true (or present). As used herein, a termpreceded by “a” or “an” (and “the” when antecedent basis is “a” or “an”)includes both singular and plural of such term, unless clearly indicatedotherwise (i.e., that the reference “a” or “an” clearly indicates onlythe singular or only the plural). Also, as used in the descriptionherein, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the contextclearly dictates otherwise.

It will also be appreciated that one or more of the elements depicted inthe drawings/figures can also be implemented in a more separated orintegrated manner, or even removed or rendered as inoperable in certaincases, as is useful in accordance with a particular application.Additionally, any signal arrows in the drawings/figures should beconsidered only as exemplary, and not limiting, unless otherwisespecifically noted. The scope of the disclosure should be determined bythe following claims and their legal equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for integrated digital-analog archiving,the method comprising: retrieving, by a computer, an electronic documentfrom a data storage; extracting, by the computer, metadata from theelectronic document; generating, by the computer, a text string based atleast in part on the metadata extracted from the electronic document;determining, by the computer, size, orientation, and format of theelectronic document; generating, by the computer, a scaled image of theelectronic document based on the size, orientation, and format of theelectronic document; generating, by the computer, an analog documentidentifier for identifying the electronic document on an analogarchiving medium; generating, by the computer, a first indicator forindicating a start of the electronic document on an analog archivingmedium; generating, by the computer, a second indicator for indicatingan end of the electronic document on the analog archiving medium;generating or obtaining, by the computer, a digital timestamp; adding,by the computer, an analog version of the digital timestamp to the textstring so as to record a time when the scaled image of the electronicdocument is stored on the analog archiving medium; generating, by thecomputer, an analog rendition of the electronic document including thefirst indicator, the analog document identifier, the scaled image of theelectronic document, the text string, and the second indicator; andcommunicating, by the computer, the analog rendition of the electronicdocument to a printer for printing the analog rendition of theelectronic document on the analog archiving medium.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising: storing, in a metadatadatabase, a document identifier of the electronic document, the digitaltimestamp, and positional information indicating a position of theanalog rendition of the electronic document printed on the analogarchiving medium.
 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein thedocument identifier of the electronic document is printed on the analogarchiving medium along with the analog rendition of the electronicdocument.
 4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:receiving a request for a document stored on the analog archivingmedium, the request containing searching criteria; based on thesearching criteria, retrieving the positional information of the analogrendition of the electronic document from the metadata database;utilizing the positional information, determining the position of theanalog rendition of the electronic document printed on the analogarchiving medium; capturing an image of the analog rendition of theelectronic document at the position; processing the image of the analogrendition of the electronic document; determining whether the imagecorrectly reflects the electronic document; responsive to the image notcorrectly reflecting the electronic document, positioning the analogarchiving medium and repeating the capturing, the processing, and thedetermining until a correct image that reflects the electronic documentis found; capturing a final image of the analog rendition of theelectronic document, the final image including a scaled image of theanalog rendition of the electronic document and analog metadata locatedproximate the scaled image on the analog archiving medium; processingthe final image of the analog rendition of the electronic document, theprocessing including transforming the scaled image of the analogrendition of the electronic document into an electronic file andtransforming the analog metadata into electronic metadata; adding theelectronic metadata to the electronic file; and returning the electronicfile in response to the request.
 5. The method according to claim 4,wherein the searching criteria comprise at least one of the documentidentifier, a last modified date, or a user name.
 6. The methodaccording to claim 5, wherein the retrieving further comprises verifyingwhether the last modified date matches what is contained in the analogversion of the digital timestamp printed on the analog archiving mediumalong with the analog rendition of the electronic document.
 7. Themethod according to claim 1, further comprising: storing, in a metadatadatabase, location information indicating a location of the analogarchiving medium in a media library.
 8. A system for integrateddigital-analog archiving, the system comprising: a processor; anon-transitory computer-readable medium; and instructions stored on thenon-transitory computer-readable medium and translatable by theprocessor for: retrieving an electronic document from a data storage;extracting metadata from the electronic document; generating a textstring based at least in part on the metadata extracted from theelectronic document; determining size, orientation, and format of theelectronic document; generating a scaled image of the electronicdocument based on the size, orientation, and format of the electronicdocument; generating analog document identifier for identifying theelectronic document on an analog archiving medium; generating a firstindicator for indicating a start of the electronic document on an analogarchiving medium; generating a second indicator for indicating an end ofthe electronic document on the analog archiving medium; generating orobtaining a digital timestamp; adding an analog version of the digitaltimestamp to the text string so as to record a time when the scaledimage of the electronic document is stored on the analog archivingmedium; generating an analog rendition of the electronic documentincluding the first indicator, the analog document identifier, thescaled image of the electronic document, the text string, and the secondindicator; and communicating the analog rendition of the electronicdocument to a printer for printing the analog rendition of theelectronic document on the analog archiving medium.
 9. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the instructions are further translatable by theprocessor for storing, in a metadata database, a document identifier ofthe electronic document, the digital timestamp, and positionalinformation indicating a position of the analog rendition of theelectronic document printed on the analog archiving medium.
 10. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein the document identifier of the electronicdocument is printed on the analog archiving medium along with the analogrendition of the electronic document.
 11. The system of claim 9, whereinthe instructions are further translatable by the processor for:receiving a request for a document stored on the analog archivingmedium, the request containing searching criteria; based on thesearching criteria, retrieving the positional information of the analogrendition of the electronic document from the metadata database;utilizing the positional information, determining the position of theanalog rendition of the electronic document printed on the analogarchiving medium; capturing an image of the analog rendition of theelectronic document at the position; processing the image of the analogrendition of the electronic document; determining whether the imagecorrectly reflects the electronic document; responsive to the image notcorrectly reflecting the electronic document, positioning the analogarchiving medium and repeating the capturing, the processing, and thedetermining until a correct image that reflects the electronic documentis found; capturing a final image of the analog rendition of theelectronic document, the final image including a scaled image of theanalog rendition of the electronic document and analog metadata locatedproximate the scaled image on the analog archiving medium; processingthe final image of the analog rendition of the electronic document, theprocessing including transforming the scaled image of the analogrendition of the electronic document into an electronic file andtransforming the analog metadata into electronic metadata; adding theelectronic metadata to the electronic file; and returning the electronicfile in response to the request.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein thesearching criteria comprise at least one of the document identifier, alast modified date, or a user name.
 13. The system of claim 12, whereinthe retrieving further comprises verifying whether the last modifieddate matches what is contained in the analog version of the digitaltimestamp printed on the analog archiving medium along with the analogrendition of the electronic document.
 14. The system of claim 8, whereinthe instructions are further translatable by the processor for storing,in a metadata database, location information indicating a location ofthe analog archiving medium in a media library.
 15. A computer programproduct for integrated digital-analog archiving, the computer programproduct comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium storinginstructions translatable by a processor for: retrieving an electronicdocument from a data storage; extracting metadata from the electronicdocument; generating a text string based at least in part on themetadata extracted from the electronic document; determining size,orientation, and format of the electronic document; generating a scaledimage of the electronic document based on the size, orientation, andformat of the electronic document; generating analog document identifierfor identifying the electronic document on an analog archiving medium;generating a first indicator for indicating a start of the electronicdocument on an analog archiving medium; generating a second indicatorfor indicating an end of the electronic document on the analog archivingmedium; generating or obtaining a digital timestamp; adding an analogversion of the digital timestamp to the text string so as to record atime when the scaled image of the electronic document is stored on theanalog archiving medium; generating an analog rendition of theelectronic document including the first indicator, the analog documentidentifier, the scaled image of the electronic document, the textstring, and the second indicator; and communicating the analog renditionof the electronic document to a printer for printing the analogrendition of the electronic document on the analog archiving medium. 16.The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the instructions arefurther translatable by the processor for: storing, in a metadatadatabase, a document identifier of the electronic document, the digitaltimestamp, and positional information indicating a position of theanalog rendition of the electronic document printed on the analogarchiving medium.
 17. The computer program product of claim 16, whereinthe document identifier of the electronic document is printed on theanalog archiving medium along with the analog rendition of theelectronic document.
 18. The computer program product of claim 16,wherein the instructions are further translatable by the processor for:receiving a request for a document stored on the analog archivingmedium, the request containing searching criteria; based on thesearching criteria, retrieving the positional information of the analogrendition of the electronic document from the metadata database;utilizing the positional information, determining the position of theanalog rendition of the electronic document printed on the analogarchiving medium; capturing an image of the analog rendition of theelectronic document at the position; processing the image of the analogrendition of the electronic document; determining whether the imagecorrectly reflects the electronic document; responsive to the image notcorrectly reflecting the electronic document, positioning the analogarchiving medium and repeating the capturing, the processing, and thedetermining until a correct image that reflects the electronic documentis found; capturing a final image of the analog rendition of theelectronic document, the final image including a scaled image of theanalog rendition of the electronic document and analog metadata locatedproximate the scaled image on the analog archiving medium; processingthe final image of the analog rendition of the electronic document, theprocessing including transforming the scaled image of the analogrendition of the electronic document into an electronic file andtransforming the analog metadata into electronic metadata; adding theelectronic metadata to the electronic file; and returning the electronicfile in response to the request.
 19. The computer program product ofclaim 18, wherein the searching criteria comprise at least one of thedocument identifier, a last modified date, or a user name.
 20. Thecomputer program product of claim 19, wherein the retrieving furthercomprises verifying whether the last modified date matches what iscontained in the analog version of the digital timestamp printed on theanalog archiving medium along with the analog rendition of theelectronic document.